The soldiers' cases: Lessons to be learned

Greek-Turkish relations have been seriously impacted by the case of the eight Turkish servicemen who sought asylum in Greece after the coup attempt in Turkey in the summer of 2016, and also by that of the two Greek soldiers arrested by Turkish authorities in early March who are still being held in custody without charges and with the obvious objective of applying pressure on Greece.

It would be interesting to see the process of lessons learned - one seldom applied in Greece - in relation to these cases.

As far as the eight Turkish officers are concerned, the first observation that jumps out is that the state machine is devoid of reflexes on the national security front and proved incapable of solving the problem when it first arose.

Second, contacts between states, whether by telephone or in person, need to be carried out with greater caution, as every word is...